BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, DEC. 1-3, 2017) — Welcome to December, month of the crab, month of the sister. With so many follies bespotting the city of Pittsfield, once again THE PLANET must telescope several items each worthy of its own full-length treatment. Such is what happens when you have dysfunctional government taken to slapstick levels. Think of Pittsfield’s political zeitgeist as a cross between the toxicity of an industrial poison, the ineptness of The Keystone Kops, and the lethality of radiated plutonium. Think of it as a laughing to keep from crying to keep from laughing. In the end, though, one must shed tears for a city that has puked over the past of its senior citizens, stifled the vibrancy of its middle class, and crushed the future for its young people. Way to go, Mayor Trashcan, Kufflinks, Lady Boots, JIV, and the rest of the “usual gang of idiots.”

Mourning Becomes Electric — It’s not so much that Trashcan signed the city up for a new energy plan. It’s that she acted a bureaucrat’s autocrat, a form of governmental ineptitude that camps at the summit of Mount Mediocrity. The mayor made her unilateral decision to undercut electric provider Eversource without giving citizens the right to decide for themselves. The move automatically enrolls households in the new plan, whether you like it or not, want it or not. YOU DON’T MATTER TO THOSE WHO KNOW BEST FOR YOU. If you don’t want to switch from Eversource, tough. Trashcan puts the burden on you to act — you must opt out. Trashcan hates representative government, individual rights, and We ThePeople‘s ownership of government. Sure, she will deny that, but forget her words. Judge by her actions. Hurry, Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, because the clock has started. So much for “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Dude, that long ago perished in Pittsfield. So much for freedom. So much for choice and the “consent of the governed.” The irony here is that while the plan may be worthwhile and actually save money, Mayor Trashcan has built up too much skepticism among bedraggled residents. This goes does as the mayor’s greatest stumble since the Tyler Street garbage-can ribbon cutting.

‘Hurrah’ and ‘Bah!’ to The Boring Broadsheet — The local daily has made marginal gains, particularly with its hiring of our good friend columnist Felix Carroll (who bears the euphemistic and mystifying title of “Community Outreach Coordinator” or words to that effect) and its coverage of the Berkshire Museum‘s art sale. Hurrah for that. The BB continues, however, continues to blow it on huge local stories. Case in point: The paper’s first-day story on the electricity/Eversource story. The paper presented the story in the form of a PR puff piece that read as if authored by the corner office. The piece failed to raise the tough questions, accepted all the city’s claims about money savings, and ignored Eversource’s input save for an obviously dated quote designed to make the utility look bad for anticipated price hikes. Other examples: The covered up scandal at Herberg Middle School involving a transgender teacher and the alleged chemical burning of a pupil … the rah-rah behind the Trashcan-Kufflinks co-production on toter garbage pick-up … the upcoming tax hike. On all these stories and many more, The “new” BB isn’t “new” enough. It still treads lightly where it should be tearing down walls, and throwing rooms.

Stop the Presses! Taxes Going Up — City finance director Matt “Kufflinks” Kerwood calls it “prudent,” his favorite word going back to his days as Little Eddie Munster on the city council. He’s obviously been hitting the prune juice a wee bit too much. Kufflinks crunched the numbers, vetoed the use of $2.25 million in “free cash” to avoid a tax hike, and decided the city must once again raise your taxes. Taxes are going up for homeowners and businesses, but this time, poor Mary Jane and Joe are going to get a whole lot poorer. Their tax hike, according to Kufflinks, will be 500% more than that inflicted upon The Dreaded Private Sector, most of them small businesses who can’t afford one cent more in tribute. Ward 4 Councilor Chris “CC” Connell spoke out forcefully against the tax hike. CC wants the city to use free cash to lower taxes, pointing out that the money will be better in the holy pockets of people rather than the sticky fingers of government. CC stood alone, however, among his colleagues. And you have to laugh at “free cash.” That money is anything but free. It represented the amount of money that you overpaid the city in taxes. Every cent of “free cash” belongs to YOU, except, of course, government doesn’t believe that.

Chiefly Matters — THE PLANET congratulates Capt. Mike Wynn on his promotion to Pittsfield police chief. Wynn’s a good cop, and after existing in the Phantom Zone of titular “acting,” he now can take unambiguous reigns of and over the force. This removes a gigantic structural obstacle for the department. We at this address hope the move enables Chief Wynn to deal with whatever divisions exist among the ranks, be they related to the job or to politics. THE PLANET will be curious to see what the chief does with this opportunity. We hope he succeeds because of the impact success will have on public safety.

With all that, brothers and sisters, we wish you a great weekend.

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“It’s not like me to pretend, but I’ll get you, I’ll get you in the end” — The Beatles, circa early.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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Paul, you should get a letter from the city with an opt out card to sign and mail in. If they conveniently left you off the mailing list you can go to http://www.colonialpowergroup.com/pittsfield/ and look for the opt out button or call NextEra at 855-639-8134 and ask to remain on Eversource.

That website says you still need to opt out even if you already have selected an electric supplier. I believe that means you could be switched and if you have a contract with a cancellation fee, you might get charged a fee. I thought it was illegal to set up a program with the default being acceptance. Was that part of the law passed in Boston that authorized this type of program?

My supply is already lower than the great savings provided by mayor trash can.
OPT OUT NOW!

Some folk seem to have the proper protection in place. Witness federal congress and senate. Conyers and Franken are the only ones??? I don’t think so. Ryan and O’Connell have a solid wall to protect that list of sinners.

Pittsfield pols need to maintain a slush fund by over taxing the population….. (well, not every body….some folk are “special”)

How else could they afford to keep upgrading North st sending large bags of money to friendly contractors. And no I did not suggest there were any kickbacks or graft or other such naughty goings on. I never said that

Never learned the reason why PHS theatre teacher was fired on the spot by McCandless after a play only 1 year into a job he was not qualified to do.He still works in education in north berkshire as a dean.
P.S. it would be a great time for the Berkshire Eagle to hire the planet to write 3 columns a week on the business of local goverment and the tracking of the people who institute higher taxes with no recognition of peoples ability to pay for it.

As Rod Serling would say, “For your consideration:” Do you think that a toter operator is going to stop, take off his seat belt, exit his warm environment and remove your bungee, get back into the cab, put the seat belt back on and dump your trash in the winter (or replay with A/C in the summer)? NOT gonna happen! So, what is the answer? Keep the 2nd guy on to unwrap the bungee or ignore it (what is done out here) and keep on truckin’ to be off at 5 PM? Citizen complaint to follow! SOSO!

I posted this on yesterday’s comment section initially…sorry. As far as the tax hike goes, is the fix in on this valuation stuff? I mean, say a small, suffering Western Massachusetts city were facing substantial….economic difficulty, starting to bump up against the levy limit. COULD an influential state official be prevailed upon to help another state official decide that said city’s property was suddenly, magically, worth more? If I were writing a mystery novel, I’d also throw in something about a nefarious involvement with a trucking/hauling company to cook up a useless, superfluous multi-million $$ project from which ALL participants could reap financial benefit…but that might strain credibility.

And Dan, I think you were looking for rein, not reign above…but of course the “reign” in that context creates a metaphor all its own so I’m ok with it.

Please be advised that the Secretary of State’s office has determined that most emails sent to and from municipal offices and officials are considered to be public records and consequently may be subject to public disclosure.

Only part Dan left out is when someone in the chain says…We’d like to help, but the pie isn’t big enough. Can you scare up a bigger hunk? And Roberto, off the record conversations at a coffee shop or over dinner are much more difficult to f.o.i.l.

Green energy is getting expensive. Utility companies across the country are lobbing for lower prices they pay solar customers for their electricity. And they are winning. They cite that the solar customers still use the transmission lines but pay nothing to maintain them. Here is one article of many on the subject.

When we find out who the last Mayor to (lower) taxes, then what do we do? The better question that can be answered by anyone,is,who is the Mayor with the biggest budget in the history of the city? And what treasurer had the best shuffle in the Deck?

Can someone honestly tell me how property values have increased? An article in I Berkshires said it was partially bevauae new condo units became taxable. So my question is do they look at same house sales and compare to three years ago? Or do they take the total properties sold and find the average number of what they sold for? I dont believe this is truly representative of a persons actual home value. I know my home, in Pittsfield, is worth $50,000 leas today than ten years ago based on trulia. Do they count foreclosed properties that havent sold and the banks have taken them back? And if those homes that have dropped so much in value, those of over $450,000 in value, how is it going ro help future sales of those homes if the tax rate is higher? Commercial propeties are higher? Please, someone show me a few same property sales that have sold for more money recently than five years ago. Feeling very frustrated as to how values are determined.

It is nothing more than circular political spin. They know it and they know you know it. They also know that after the people bitch about it for a short while they can resume their giddy dance in the basement of city hall and begin to make plans on how to spend it.

I hear you pothole. It’s called the Bungee shuffle. Any revenue source you can come up with,just throw it out there. It always sticks with this bunch. It won’t be long before we have to pay for our garbage and water usage.

Pittsfield’s fiscal year 2018 municipal budget equals a $156.4 million (or $156,429,586) operating budget ($145,191,805 for city operations and an enterprise budget of 11,376,495), plus $7.2-million in “other expenses” for a total municipal budget of $163,859,871, plus $22.4 million in capital borrowing.

Prior to the recent re-evaluation, the city of Pittsfield was $175,839 under the levy ceiling. Pittsfield had to use $2.25 million in free cash to offset the tax rate to stay under the levy ceiling under Proposition 2.5. Last spring, the city council approved the use of $2.25 million in free cash by an 8-3 vote.

This above information is dated June 14, 2017 from journalist Andy McKeever, iBerkshires.

On Tuesday evening, November 28, 2017, Pittsfield set the tax rate to fund the fiscal year 2018 municipal budget it approved last spring. The re-evaluation determined a 3.5 percent increase in total taxable value – an increase from $3,360,079,672 to $3,478,372,726. The re-evaluation gave Pittsfield a $1.5 million margin under the levy ceiling heading into the next year, which is 2018. The City Council approved Mayor Linda Tyer’s request to lower the free cash amount to $1 million, which in turn boosts the city’s free cash total to about $4.5 million.

The bottom line is the average homeowner in Pittsfield can expect to see a 5.1-percent increase in the tax bills.

This above information is dated November 29, 2017 from journalist Andy McKeever, iBerkshires.

The city will collect $1.2-million more from taxpayers rather than dipping into free cash. Pittsfield’s percentage increase in property taxes from 2014 to 2017 puts it 10th in Massachusetts for largest increases during that time.

This above information is dated November 28, 2017 from journalist Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle.

The following is my opinion:

Every fiscal year, Pittsfield politics increases its municipal budget by about 5%, which is unsustainable over the long-term. Every fiscal year, Pittsfield politics adds well over $10-million to its debt-load via its annual capital budget. On top of its financially unsustainable operation and capital budgets, Pittsfield politics also has hundreds of millions of dollars in OPEB debt.

The bottom line is that Pittsfield politics public finances are unsustainable and the city government is on the path to insolvency and possible future bankruptcy!

Right. Because a lot of these giveaways to the super rich will be paid for with cuts in aid to the states. And so the states will have to make huge cuts in their aid to the cities as well as raise states taxes. Look for huge cuts in medicaid, food stamps, section 8, money for roads and schools.

Trump supporters are going to see the handwriting on the wall now. He could give two shits about his base and they are going to feel quite blindsided.

Too bad Charlie Manson died because I was hoping Trump would be put in a cell with him.

Stating the facts, isn’t regurgitating anything. I don’t watch CNN MSBC or Fox, maybe Bonanza and Gunsmoke reruns. But anyway, got the Trump info off of a documentary which was very interesting.It basically was saying he was on the verge of Bankrupcy and was bailed out by the name brand,Trump that would be used by his debtors,I know for a fact most New Porkers can’t stand him and the people that had his name anything is discarded by most. Have a nice day.

I totally agree. ABC should be fined for spreading false news. The stock market even dipped on Friday. The media is now the boy who cried wolf. The liberal media has done this to itself. How can anyone believe them when all they do is try to promote the liberal agenda at any cost including lying?

Actually the H is correct,and can’t recall what Banks (several) did that bailout, but this happened in the either early to mid-ninties where some of Trumps Bank Debt was upwards a couple billion. That documentary he-she’s talking about was done way after, that person a close aide of some sort,did mention in thatThe Trump Name -Brand was instrumental in obtaining the loans as that is about all he had at that time. Of course the rest is History, he achieved success again,from the abyss.

The facts are – and this is was reported by the AP – that the Senate version of the tax cut bill; 1) doubles the standard deduction for individuals $12,000, for couples $24,000, 2) grows the per child tax credit, 3) abolishes the Obamacare mandate, and 4) cuts corporate tax rates from 35% to 20%. Those are the highlights.
The Senate & House must now reconcile the differences in legislation.
What drives me crazy about some of you bloggers is that you make it up as you go along instead of dealing in facts.

Oh really? Please explain your math, genius. Consumers will have more money in their pockets, companies will keep their jobs in the U.S., and in many cases bring jobs back. Cuts in food stamps, welfare and fewer illegals spells less money out of the budget. Perhaps you’d like to ignore the record setting stock market as of late? Go Trump!

Re: Toters
I can’t emphasize the waste of time, effort & money these toters will cause! So, this will be my last post for you; take it as you may.
WE CAN’Tput them out at night for pick up the next day! Our javelina (large rats that resemble boar) and coyotes know enough to tip them over and raid them; YOUR feral cats and unleashed dogs will learn the same. (Sorry Joe Chague, that’s the way it is).
WHY the City hasn’t put on a publicity stunt to show how much more efficient the toter system will be is beyond me. WHY? IT CAN’T!!! It will build little cities and streets to show traffic flow and big box footprints but won’t show an actual demo of toters in the snow, or with traffic, parked vehicles, snow piles, etc.
Maybe it works in places with better snow removal or less snow, ie, out East, but not in the Pitts.
God Bless you, bless you all!!!!

We had four of these toters where I once worked. The bears were constantly at them.

If I just had the one big toter for recyclables I could probably put it out every four weeks. I wonder if they kept the garbage pickup the same, and people took recycling serious, there might be a middle solution.

Only problem with your theory School Committee is that after 8 years of Progressive Obama, the middle class continued its downward slide. Progressives and Obama acted like the middle class didn’t exist.

Pat, so do you think that is why he tried to get health care for the middle class? One year later Pats answer to all Trumps screw ups is OBAMA DID IT. And a year from now her excuse will be the same because her mind has been co opted by Hannity and co.

Hoosac Valley was defeated 37-0 at Gillette Stadium for the State Championship. When they beat ( pummeled ) teams in Berkshire County they must’ve felt great I’m sure,being on the losing end of many games this past year. I’m wondering if the team feels what it’s like to be on the side for a change?

Americans are stupid to believe Corporate America will invest in the workforce and keep profits in America. The only I investment,other that lining their own pockets will to Invest in the markett, with you’re money that will be for a lifetime.Kapanski’s tax relief has a very shorter shelf life,and most in America will not be included with this tax break. At all.

30% percent in Pittsfield are doing great. 70% doing not so great. We have only the Progressives to blame for that here in Pittsfield. They only print the news they want us to hear and pretend that everything is perfect here (gee, sounds like we are living in Russia).

The answer to the Toter system lies in the reason to have it in the first place. If it was so great,why hasn’t the City used the system years ago? Does Republic and Covanta have a history together? Just curious.

These private garbage outfits want the cities to supplement these businesses, almost like a T I F. Covanta for example must make money, thus the help with the 550 grand from the EDF. Now, if Covanta leaves town, does the city get reimbursed? Was there incentives for the city other than employees keeping the jobs? Or was that the sole purpose?
If a hauler is reducing it’s workforce and saving capital because of automate trucks, then the costs should not increase twofold. The trucks should be already equipped to do this job, if in the. Business to haul automated and you expect the city or any city to pay for upgrade.This should be put to bid. This pay me now or pay me later doesn’t apply here.